Just This Once, Run
by LivinJgrl123
Summary: *extreme A/U* *scene after credits* *one-shot* "It's good to see you again," he says through the glass, and when she hears this, she thinks that, just this once, it might be okay to run.


**I own nada. **

**I have no idea what's going to happen to who or to what in CA2:TWS. This came to me early (like 2 or 1AM early yesterday) and since then I've been planning it and now here it is. This is purely a random idea that came to me out of nowhere; pleas don't take it as some sort of sign for TWS. My mind came up with this idea. I hope that much is clear. (I'm just saying, because someone will think something about the whole thing...) BTW, I imagine that this would be that one scene that takes place after the credits - you know the one that you end up staying in the movie theatre longer than expected for. _That _one. Right, so, on with the one-shot, yeah?_  
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Natasha doesn't really know if she actually _wants_ to go in and sit across from the Winter Soldier himself, and _talk_. Steve says she doesn't have to, that she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to - because James Barnes _had_ crushed the her right wrist, and it was now pressed to her chest, kept elevated, in a black wrist brace. The cracked ribs, a gift from him, also, made it hard for her to breathe in the deep, calming breaths she really needs, and the bruises that litter her body, covered and not, are signs from the beating she took while assisting Cap in the fight against him.

But no one's ever asked if Natasha's ever _wanted_ to do anything, and she thinks it's a comrade-thing to do, and she thinks it's _nice_ of Steve to tell her that he can get Fury to get someone else to simply sit in there and talk to the guy. She doesn't know why Fury wants someone to just talk to the guy. Having been unchained from the chair she would be sitting across after being given a mild sedative that would slow his movements and reaction time, in case he did try to attack her.

She peers over Steve's shoulder, into the one-way glass, and she meets his eyes, and feels something like dread settling in the very center of her being. It's like the mirror-side that he faces in the room isn't actually being a mirror, for him, like it's supposed to. She gulps, and wonders if he can really see through to her. She knows she's being irrational, that feeling this slow, crawling fear is a weakness she can not afford to deal with.

But she looks at Steve, who is giving her pleading look, and she decides that she's not going to speak to him. She doesn't want to, and yet she does. The man doesn't remember Steve, doesn't remember anything. The Red Room had turned him into a monster of his former self. Natasha knows this for a fact, and what scares her the most is that, out of every person she has ever known, _this_ man - the Winter Soldier, _James Barnes _ - is _just. like. her._

Steve is looking at her again, and Natasha sighs. She doesn't want to agitate Cap further, and so she nods at him, letting him know she's not going to speak to James, but then the man behind the glass speaks, and it stops her before she can take a step towards the door leading out into the hall of the temporary SHIELD base in D.C.

"It was good to see you again, Natalia."

He says this nonchalantly, with smug look on his face, but there is no hint of a smirk or a smile anywhere. She watches him carefully, wondering just _how_ he knew that name.

Maybe Russia hadn't forgotten about her after all.

Steve nudges her towards the door, and, though she wants to go in, and demand how he knows who she is - who she _really_ is - she'll do this for Cap, just this once, because the guy's been through hell, nearly killing his best friend in the process of defeating the amnesiac. So she started towards the door, and gets as far to the doorway with her hand on the handle when he speaks to her again.

"We'll be seeing each other again, soon," he calls to her, but it's in Russian, so Steve can't understand it. Natasha ignores his confused look as she slowly turns to face the window.

She stays put, her head swiveled to look at him through the one-way glass, but he seems to be done talking, and so she turns and leaves without a word to Steve.

She certainly hopes they don't meet again; Natasha's wrist throbs as she remembers him simply grabbing and squeezing it. She remembers hearing a crack, and then she'd bitten her lip till it bled in order to hold back a scream.

Steve can take care of him, she thinks.

Besides, if it had been her, to go in there, he might have just taunted her about her past - about what deeds for the devil she'd done - and she doesn't want a recap of all the blood on her hands, so she hurries her pace, towards the exit.

She needs to leave.

_Now._


End file.
